74 BEE-FARMING. 



The spring should not be neglected. The stocks in 

 March are sometimes found destitute of honey. This is 

 often the case after a mild winter, for it has repeatedly been 

 noticed by apiarians, that whereas in severe cold, frosty 

 winter very little honey, comparatively speaking, has been 

 consumed, in a mild winter nearly all the honey has been 

 eaten. How is it the bees in Siberia winter so well? We 

 should naturally suppose they would be killed by the in- 

 tense cold which prevails for four months in that bleak 

 region. It is not so. The peasantry keep fine and strong 

 colonies, and send to other nations many tons of pure 

 honey. The Americans deposit their hives in ice houses 

 all the winter : the stocks, instead of being weaker than if 

 they wintered in the open air, come out all the stronger in 

 the following spring, and have consumed far less honey. 

 In cold weather the bees cluster closely together, and are 

 to a certain degree dormant. In mild weather, on the 

 contrary, they are very active. In this state, when not 

 clustering for warmth, they must consume the honey to 

 keep up their natural heat. From October to March an 

 ordinary sized stock will eat fifteen pounds of honey. Dr. 

 Bevan states, a stock will generally consume from October 

 to March one to one-and-a-half pounds of honey per 

 month. But from March to the end of May, when 

 breeding is going on at a rapid rate, they consume double 

 that quantity. If a cold May comes after a warm April 

 it causes sad destruction in cottage apiaries. This may be 

 prevented by feeding. All bee-farmers should feed heavily 

 if the month of May should prove wet and cold ; they will 

 be well repaid. I have known fine stocks perish through 

 want of feeding in spring after wintering well with very 

 little loss. "With timely attention and a little food in 

 March they might have been saved. Spring feeding also 

 causes the queen to deposit eggs in the cells, thus strengthen- 

 ing the stocks and causing early swarming. 



